Human Rights Quotes

"Ask the SCLC about John Lewis and I'll tell you the story of how someone who not only served as the conscience of our country but literally shed his blood in the struggle for the soul of America" "We must commit to a future where everyone can succeed, no matter their race, religion, gender, or disability" "The animals of the world exist for their own reasons They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white or women created for men" "There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard." "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor" "The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom." "All mankind being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions" "Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance" "Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression, or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that create huge inequalities." "If this is a man, I was, and I was sent to the end of the Nazi hell on earth because of my racial category and my politics" "What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist" "The function of freedom is to free someone else" "We have the Bill of Rights. What we need is a Bill of Responsibilities" "Compassion is no substitute for justice" "All men are by nature born equally free and independent" "I started getting more and more active around immigration reform because this was such a waste of lives, such a waste of potential, such a waste for our country not to have the human capital that we developed—geared toward improving our entire society" "Privacy is not for sale, and human rights should not be compromised out of fear or greed" "There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women" "Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave" "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."